Overheard

Jan. 15, 2013 12:43 a.m. ET

"The sun is at our backs," crowed General Motors chief Daniel Akerson last week in a discussion about the auto maker's future. Er, did he mean "the wind?"

A slip or not, GM probably did just lose the bragging rights of being the world's top auto maker—a spot it reclaimed only last year. Its 9.2 million in global vehicle sales in 2012 likely put it behind Toyota Motor, now fully recovered from Japan's earthquake,...